Child Support Report XXVII, No. 7, 20050701

Child Support Report

Vol. XXVII, No. 7, Jul 2005

Child Support Report is a publication of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.

CSR is published for information purposes only. No official endorsement of any practice, publication, or individual by the Department of Health and Human Services or the Office of Child Support Enforcement is intended or should be inferred.

Margot Bean Steps Aboard as New OCSE Commissioner

State Child Support Directors Meet

New Guide Released - Working with the Military on CS Matters

National Judicial/CSE Task Force is Moving Forward

Peer to Peer Training A Success

New Addition to OCSE Web Site

Funding for Child Support/Healthy Marriage Demonstrations

Margot Bean Steps Aboard as New OCSE Commissioner

By: Elaine Blackman

Let us all welcome Margot Bean as Commissioner, Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Her term as commissioner of the national IV-D program was announced by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, effective July 25, 2005.

OCSE Commissioner Margot Bean

OCSE Commissioner
Margot Bean

A native and resident of Niskayuna, NY, Ms. Bean brings with her to Washington, DC her past five years' experience as director of the Child Support Enforcement division of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, and two years prior as an attorney in the division. Before her service in New York State, Ms. Bean began her career in 1980 in the Guam Attorney General's Office as an Assistant Attorney General in several divisions over the years, including the Prosecution, Civil Litigation, and Family Divisions. Ms. Bean this year served as President of the National Child Support Enforcement Association.

Commissioner Bean says she sees the success of the child support enforcement program as "grounded in the partnership between the Federal government and the states, as well as with other agencies and advocates." She looks forward to "the opportunity to use the knowledge and skills I have acquired over my years in the child support program as we all move forward to implement the National Child Support Enforcement Strategic Plan."

Dr. Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, lauds Ms. Bean's strong background in the child support program. OCSE Deputy Commissioner David Siegel said that Ms. Bean's appointment is "great news for all of us in OCSE as well as the 60,000 others in the nation's child support community, and the millions of children and families that we assist every day."

Recognizing that the program has "changed dramatically and become very effective over the past 30 years," Commissioner Bean says, "Our challenge now is to continue to look for new solutions in our goal of making every family self-sufficient."

Elaine Blackman is a Writer in the Division of Consumer Services.

State Child Support Directors Meet

By: Robert Cohen

The National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD) recently held its annual conference in Savannah, Georgia. The theme of the meeting, "The Wave of the Future: Independent and Healthy Families," is indicative of the fact that the membership is not content to sit on its laurels, but is looking forward, working to further improve the program's effectiveness. NCCSD President and Georgia Child Support Enforcement Director Robert Riddle set the tone for the meeting in his opening remarks.

Issues Reflect Concerns

The issues on the agenda reflected some of the most important concerns on the minds of the state directors:

Status of TANF Reauthorization
State Guideline Review Models
Customer Service Websites
Domestic Violence and Child Support
Liens as a Method of Increasing Enforcement Effectiveness
Data Warehousing for Enhanced Program Management
Undocumented Workers - a Growing Segment of the Caseload

A committee of 4 directors developed the agenda. "We try to be sensitive to the number of new or less experienced directors... " in selecting the agenda topics, said President Riddle. "These are timely" issues which the group has not otherwise recently had a chance to "talk about a lot." "Obviously, TANF reauthorization is an issue in the forefront of all our minds," he said.

New President and Board Chosen

NCCSD also elected its new Board of Directors, taking office in October:

Daryl Wusk (NE), President
Alisha Griffin (NJ) Vice-President
Brenda Lyttle (WY) Secretary-Treasurer

As immediate past president at that time, Riddle will also serve on the Board.

Cohesive, Supportive Group

"The IV-D Directors are a cohesive group who rely on and support each other," President Riddle said, "and I think this is reflective of our dealings with OCSE. We feel we're partners with them and appreciate the open and frank dialogue we have with them." Incoming President Daryl Wusk expressed similar views. "I want the good communication we have established with OCSE to continue and for us to work closely together. New issues will always be coming... we need to always dialogue."

Robert Cohen is Director of the Division of Consumer Services.

New Guide Released - Working with the Military on CS Matters

By: Judge Larry Holtz

During the past several years, many child support workers have seen a substantial increase in the number of cases involving one or more members of the armed forces. Some of those cases involve regular, active duty military members, but on a more frequent basis they also include activated reservists and/or national guard forces as well. As anticipated, the influx of these cases also produced a wide array of questions with a corollary need for a reliable source of information. That resource is now available in the form of a new comprehensive trainer guide entitled "Working With the Military on Child Support Matters."

Initially produced in late 2003, the guide underwent substantive revisions necessitated by the passage of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which replaced the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act. The curriculum was successfully presented as a pilot to child support trainers/military executives, and then as a field trial for CSE caseworkers. It has also been cleared by appropriate offices within the Department of Defense (DoD): Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS); Defense Management Data Center (DMDC); and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Readiness (OPR). Their comments and suggestions were integrated into the final version.

The trainer guide contains a suggested two-day course curriculum targeted for child support enforcement workers who process cases involving military members. It is divided into seven modules to facilitate presentation and/or identify focus areas. Module 1 provides a general sketch of the United States military organization. Module 2 addresses locate resources applicable to cases involving the military. Module 3 deals with methods and procedures for service of civil process on military personnel. Module 4 covers the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Module 5 concerns the rules and procedures for obtaining evidence relevant to paternity from military personnel. Module 6 examines successful strategies for establishing paternity and/or child support orders involving a member of the military. Module 7 identifies successful methods of enforcing financial and medical child support obligations where military members are involved. The guide also contains trainer notes, a content outline, and training aids, such as handouts and presentations, which should be helpful to state and local CSE trainers. Included in an extensive appendix is a mock-up of the military Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)) together with an explanation of each of the 78 information fields on the form; a list of commonly used military acronyms; military rank and grade charts; and a sample agency letter to request a statutory allotment.

Copies of the guide were delivered to state IV-D Directors, Regional Administrators, RPMs, and training liaisons under Dear Colleague Letter 05-17, dated July 6, 2005. Additional copies can be obtained on line from the OCSE Web site: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/training/working_with_military/.

An abbreviated video version, intended to supplement the trainer guide, will also soon be available on the OCSE website.

Larry Holtz is Court/Military Liaison, Division of State, Tribal, and Local Assistance, OCSE.

National Judicial/CSE Task Force is Moving Forward

By: Judge Larry R. Holtz

Rarely does such a diverse group bond so quickly or demonstrate the level of sus tained enthusiasm and penchant for hard work that is reflected by the National Judicial/CSE Task Force. They identified several key areas that are "most ripe" for collaboration between the child support community and the courts. Also Eileen Brooks, Director of State, Tribal, and Local Assistance, and the division are leading the effort in taking steps to provide practical approaches to problem-solving and "institutionalizing" the collaboration.

In terms of a team response, the National Judicial/CSE Task Force is moving forward. Judge Toni Higginbotham, who presides over the Family Court of East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, commented, "This task force has been dynamite in affording the judiciary and key professionals at the Federal and state levels the opportunity to brainstorm ways to make timely support to children and families a reality."

History

In September of 1998, OCSE worked with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to host a national judicial symposium entitled "Children, Courts and the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program." It addressed the integral role of the courts and judiciary in the child support enforcement process. It was unique in featuring teams of state court/judicial and IV-D representatives who joined to evolve strategies to deal with child support issues in their own jurisdictions.

In May 2003, OCSE hosted the 2nd National Symposium on Children, Courts and the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program. The goal was to improve collaboration between child support agencies and the courts and judiciary. As a result, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) priorities: (1) uncollectible arrears, (2) default orders, and (3) interstate case processing - along with issued resolutions identifying three collaboration potential strategies for dealing with them.

Current

As a result of those resolutions, in 2004, OCSE formed the National Judicial/CSE Task Force to take the next steps. The approximately 30 core members from 20 states, with supporting staff from the State Information Technology Consortium (SITC), represent a wide cross-section of national court/judicial organizations, trial, and appellate judges, state/tribal child support agencies, and OCSE. And while some of the work has been accomplished during face-to-face meetings, a much greater portion of the work has been accomplished by the following six subcommittees:

Arrears management/order modification
This subcommittee developed and circulated a IV-D Director's survey to identify early intervention programs and promising practices. A similar survey is being considered for the judiciary to review areas such as the impact incarceration has on both compliance and collections.
Inter-jurisdictional case processing/ electronic data exchange
This subcommittee is developing a data standards advisory group to establish a business case for electronic data exchange with measured impact grade for courts, judges, and tribal and state child support users.
Education/cross-training for all stakeholders
This subcommittee will serve as a vehicle for dissemination of information from other initiatives and as the primary source of judicial training and orientation. The committee has written several articles for national newsletters and magazines and is in the process of developing a curriculum for newly assigned family and juvenile law judges which will include basics on child support.
Collaborative planning
This subcommittee developed a model collaboration plan for courts and agencies. They circulated a survey to capture information on collaboration efforts that are already under way.
Problem solving courts
This subcommittee identifies model child support courts that use problem solving techniques. Those processes and strategies will then be compressed into a bench card which will aid other jurisdictions in processing their cases.
Reducing bad orders
This subcommittee collects information on the number of cases with default orders and determines what, if any, correlation exists regarding the payment history. The committee oversees how states set child support obligations and also conducts surveys to identify promising practices on how interventions could reduce default orders.

The Task Force is committed to working collectively to make the changes in child support, court and other processes, procedures and/or rules that will improve outcomes for children and families. They are developing a Task Force strategic plan and proposing regional meetings to initiate collaborations on a more localized level. Each meeting would include several jurisdictions to encourage enthusiasm for the collaboration and to support learning from one another.

Nick Young, IV-D Director from VA, defines the task force: "The National Judicial/Child Support Task Force offers both communities the superb opportunity of streamlining operations for parents by adding a more rehabilitative approach for non-custodial parents and, hopefully, providing children with increased support - emotional and financial."

Larry Holtz is Court/Military Liaison, Division of State, Tribal, and Local Assistance, OCSE.

Peer to Peer Training A Success

By: Nehemiah Rucker

On June 21-23, OCSE sponsored a successful Peer-to-Peer Technical Assistance and Training Conference in Dallas, TX. The meeting brought together mentor states with exemplary paternity performance with other states seeking improvement in this important program area. The child support enforcement program's paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP) indicator and related Data Reliability Audit issues were addressed.

Attendees included representatives from over 44 states and territories, as well as OCSE. Staff from mentor states presented highlights and successful practices of their respective state programs with respect to the PEP measure and related data reliability issues. At the conclusion of each presentation, participants were afforded the opportunity to pose questions to the presenters and to identify "exemplary practices" that they thought would be useful for their respective states to adopt.

Feedback from conference participants was that it was extremely helpful. Summary notes, including exemplary practices, from the PEP Technical Assistance and Training Conference will be disseminated to states and conference participants once these materials have been finalized.

Nehemiah Rucker is Team Leader of the Data Collection/Reporting Team in the Division of Planning, Research, and Evaluation.

New Addition to OCSE Web Site

OCSE has added a new page to its Web site - State Agencies Working with Employers.

OCSE's Employer Services Web page is dedicated to informing employers about the CSE program and recognizing the important partnership between employers and state child support agencies. The Web site includes information, helpful tips, calculation examples, state-by-state requirements, publications, "frequently-asked-questions" (FAQs), and linked resources to help employers meet their responsibilities in child support enforcement.

The State Agencies Working with Employers page includes helpful tips, facts, and linked resources to help state agencies work effectively with private sector and Federal agency employers. The site provides useful information and resources.

For further information, visit the Employer Services Web site at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/employer/home.htm.

Funding for Child Support/Healthy Marriage Demonstrations

Funding for Child Support/Healthy Marriage demonstrations has been awarded to Florida and Washington State through Section 1115 of the Social Security Act. These states now join a growing number of such projects ongoing throughout the nation. For more information, visit http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/2005newsann.htm.

Child Support Report is a publication of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.

Internet: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/
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